Slava Epstein

Antibiotics, among the most extraordinary drugs of the last hundred years, mostly come from a very ordinary source: dirt. But that source has been slowly exhausted, since 99 percent of the microbes in dirt can’t be cultured in a lab. Now, a group of scientists has developed a new technique for cultivating bacteria on their home turf, so to speak: right in the dirt, where they grow best. The results are a game-changer.